A/N: To my two lovely ladies, I hope your move-ins both went well. Bethany, would you believe I wrote the rec room scene before I came over to your house the other week? Hehe. :-D
Unfortunately, y'all, I'm a little stuck on the next chapter, so it may be a little longer. :-P
Twelve Years Old - 2018
"It's been one week since you looked at me, dropped your arms to your sides, and said, 'I'm sorry.' Five days since I laughed at you and said, 'You just did just what I thought you were gonna do.' Three days since the living room. We realized we're both to blame, but what could we do? Yesterday you just smiled at me, 'cause it'll still be two days till we say we're sorry." - Barenaked Ladies, "One Week"
Kate was preparing for a session with the late-as-usual Michael Murphy when Lorne entered her office. "Something I can help you with, Colonel?" she asked.
He reached for her hand and pulled her to stand in front of him, letting his hands rest gently on her hips. "You're looking particularly beautiful this morning, Doctor," he said sweetly.
"And you look rather dashing yourself," she returned with a smile. "Now was there something you needed or did you just miss me?"
"I dropped by to say that my team is going off-world," Marcus answered. "Might be a few days."
Kate nodded. "Be safe," she cautioned, softly touching his cheek.
"Well, we're basically just babysitting Zelenka and his team," he replied with a slight eye-roll, "but I'll try to make sure he doesn't blow us all up."
"Thank you."
"I might even bring you back something nice," he teased and she smiled sweetly. Then he leaned in to kiss her. Kate slowly wound her arms around his neck and he pulled her closer, nestling them into a steamy embrace.
Oblivious to all but the woman in his arms, Lorne didn't hear the small voice at first. "What are you doing?" it repeated with a giggle.
Kate and Marcus broke the kiss and looked down to see Terena peeking up at them from underneath Kate's desk. "Sweetie, what are you doing here?" Kate asked, surprised.
"We are playing hide and seek," the five-year-old answered innocently. "What are you doing?"
Kate looked to Lorne, who just shrugged and nodded his approval. "When two people love each other, Terena, they sometimes like to express that love by sharing kisses," she explained with only the slightest sense of awkwardness.
"Oh." The dark-skinned girl seemed to think about this for a minute. "Is it fun?"
Kate blushed. "Yes, dear."
"But you don't need to worry about kissing boys until you're much older," Marcus assured her.
"Okay."
"Now why don't you run along and find a different hiding place?" Kate suggested.
Terena nodded and crawled out of the small space. Then she dashed out of the room with a quick wave.
Kate smiled as she watched the young girl leave. She knew that she and Marcus were past the point of having children, so she was grateful for the time she got to spend with the other youngsters on Atlantis.
"Well, that was interesting," Lorne said with a chuckle.
"Never a dull moment with little ones around," she nodded.
"I'll see you in a few days," he said, gently kissing her again. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
When Kyle saw Terena running down the hall, he quickly chased after her. As he was a year older than her and a few inches taller, he caught up to her after about twenty seconds. "Got you!" he said as he tagged her arm. Panting lightly, the children slowed their pace. "Now you hafta be it, Terena," Kyle said with a grin.
Terena looked at her friend for a minute. Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him closer, pressing her small mouth to his.
The timing was so precise that it must have been fate. Or perhaps an interfering ascended Ancient subconsciously whispering, "Walk this way." On his way to the gym, Ronon had run into Michael, who was hurrying to see Dr. Heightmeyer, and they'd been walking together for a few minutes. When they rounded the corner of the hallway, they were met with the sight of their children.
As soon as Michael saw his youngest son sharing a kiss with Ronon's little girl, he grabbed the bigger man's arm and pleaded, "Now, Ronon, there's no need to get violent about th-- Ughh!" Ronon had quickly shoved the anthropologist aside.
The children, who had separated as soon as they'd heard the voices, were now looking up, wide-eyed, at Ronon, who was stalking towards them.
Before any protests could be made by either of them, Ronon grabbed Kyle by the shoulders and yanked the boy up in the air so that they were face to face. "If you ever touch her again," Ronon threatened, shaking Kyle so that his dangling feet swung, "I'll feed you to a whale!"
Half scared to the point where he was about to wet his pants and half angry that he was the one being yelled at, he smarted, "Whales don't eat people…"
"You wanna say that again?" Ronon growled. Suddenly, he felt a small tugging on his pant-leg.
"Father…" Terena spoke quietly, looking up at her father about to strangle her playmate. "Kyle didn't, umm… He didn't do it."
"Yeah!" Kyle piped up. "She kissed me!"
Ronon's menacing expression toward the young boy slowly softened. "Oh." He returned Kyle's feet to the floor in a less than gentle manner. "What'd you do that for?" he asked, squatting down so that he was on the same level as his daughter.
Terena answered with honest innocence, "Miss Kate did it and Misser Lorne liked it!"
"Well, I thought it was icky!" Kyle announced from where he was clinging to his father's side.
Ronon and Michael shared a relieved glance when they realized that nothing of any real consequence had occurred. "You two knuckle-heads run along," Ronon said, standing back up. He playfully tousled his daughter's auburn hair. "And leave the boys alone, squirt."
Terena smiled. "Yes, Father."
XXXXXX
It was the third day after the incident that John got the confirmation that "yes, dammit!" Rodney would be fine. Carson had run several tests and proclaimed that Rodney was already starting to heal. He was still going to have to stay in the infirmary for another week so that Carson could administer strong painkillers, but the snarky astrophysicist was going to be just fine. A little grumpy maybe, but then, that was normal for Rodney.
"Please don't make me do this," Evie begged as John dragged her by her arm into the infirmary.
"You are going to tell him if I have to beat a confession out of you," John insisted, pulling her toward the only bed that was currently occupied.
"Yes, mother," Evie grumbled as her husband lightly shoved her so that she was standing at the foot of Rodney's bed.
"Can I help you?" Rodney asked when Evie just stood there for a minute, looking nervous.
"Umm… I just came to see how you were doing?" she tried, but knew she wasn't convincing.
"She has something she'd like to tell you," John said and nudged, "Don't you, Evie?"
'Wow, you are my mother,' Evie thought as she frowned at the man forcing her to apologize. She turned back to McKay. "I'm really sorry, Rodney," she said, then bit her lip.
Rodney cocked his head expectantly, an unspoken question of, "What for?"
"Tell him why," John prompted.
Evie shot him a glare; he was not helping. "You got shot because I wasn't paying attention," she admitted, her cheeks growing warm.
Rodney frowned, but before he could say anything, Sheppard pressed on. "And tell him why you weren't paying attention…"
"I was…looking elsewhere," she answered and prayed he would leave it at that.
"Be specific, Major." This time he received an 'I-will-slit-your-throat-while-you-sleep' glare for his insistence.
"I was…" Evie looked down. "I was looking at his butt, alright! You happy now, Colonel?" She glared furiously at John and continued to stare at him while she waited for the inevitable tongue-lashing from McKay.
But no brutal bashing came from Rodney. Worse, he was uncharacteristically silent.
Evie glanced back at him nervously. "Rodney?"
"I heard you," he said, his voice just above a whisper.
When he turned away from her to stare sadly at some other point across the room, Evie felt like he'd slashed her heart with Carson's scalpel. She closed her eyes tightly for a second, then left the infirmary at a pace just short of running so that neither man could see her tears.
XXXXXX
After hashing things out and providing a few more details for Rodney, John went looking for Evie. He finally found her in the rec room, playing against Michael on somebody's old Gamecube.
"Evie, why do suck so bad at Mario Kart?" Michael teased.
"Michael, why do you suck so bad at life?" she shot back, desperately trying to steer the vehicle on the screen.
"Oh, you cut me to the quick, Toad," he replied sarcastically. "Ha! I win," he announced gleefully as Yoshi and Luigi crossed the finish line in their colorful kart.
"We are so doing this again," Evie decided, starting the race over on the same track.
"I'm still gonna beat you, Evie," Michael said as their karts took off. "Or should I let you win a round?" He grinned.
"I am not that bad!" she insisted, even as her animated kart ground along the guardrail on the TV screen. "It's only because you keep throwing turtles at me--"
"They're turtle shells," Michael corrected, guiding his kart across the narrow bridge with ease, "not turtles; that would be inhumane."
"Whatever. And I have to play with Toad, 'cause you stole Yoshi. I win if I drive with Yoshi."
"So you keep telling me…"
Suddenly Evie gasped and laughed triumphantly. "I got the star! I'm invincible!" She hummed along with the "invincible" music for a few seconds, then cried, "No! Nonono! That's not fair! I was invincible!"
"Not if you drive off a cliff, you're not," John chuckled from behind her.
Evie frowned when she heard his voice. "Please go away," she requested nicely. "You're bringing down my happy moment."
"You ran off a cliff; how is that a happy moment?" Michael asked. Evie lightly kicked his foot. "You wanna play the next round, John?" Michael questioned as he started the second lap.
"No, I just came to check on Brooks," he said quietly. He didn't think the Marine across the room was listening, but he wanted to be careful.
"Are you going to be mean John or nice John? Because lately you've been confusing the heck out of me." Her words weren't sarcastic or venomous; spending ten minutes with Michael had cheered her up considerably. She'd also realized that Rodney deserved to know what had happened, and she'd work on earning his forgiveness after his mood had mellowed.
John sat down next to her on the floor. "I'm sorry that I kind of…pushed things, but I knew you'd never tell him on your own," he said gently.
Evie nodded slowly, her eyes on the screen, but her mind paying attention to her husband. "I guess…"
"Evie?"
"What?"
"Will you look at me?"
"I might fall off another cliff…"
John reached over and hit the start/pause button on her controller. "Evie…" She looked up at him and, for the first time since Rodney had gotten shot, she didn't see enmity in his eyes. "I forgive you," he said softly and, judging by her expression, it was obvious that he had caught her off-guard.
"I should…" Michael didn't finish his thought, but quietly got up and walked over to the far side of the room, where he made sure to command the attention of the young SF reading a sporting magazine on the couch. "Dude, you like to go duck-hunting, too?!"
Evie smiled at Michael's attempt to draw notice away from her and John's little pow-wow. "So…just like that?" she asked.
"Well, you've been apologizing for three days and I decided to stop being a jerk about it," he answered, and she knew the hint of guilt on his face was the closest thing she was getting to an apology for his previous attitude.
"Well, that's… Thank you," she said, unsure of how she should proceed. They were both sitting Indian style on the floor -- not exactly the best position for a hug, which was what she wanted. She settled upon just a grateful smile for the present time.
After half a minute of semi-awkward silence, a thought struck Evie and she looked down. "So… Elizabeth has been bugging me for my report," she said as she began nervously twisting her hands in that way that John thought was so cute. "I told her I needed some time to get everything straight in my head, but she's not going to wait forever…"
"Why don't you just tell her the same thing I did in mine?" John suggested. "Write that we were on our way back to the Gate, keeping watch for the lizard, but it caught us by surprise anyway. The weapon went off, Rodney got shot; there was nothing any of us could have done."
Evie was glad that she wasn't currently making eye-contact with John; she hated that this was now the fourth time she'd cried or nearly cried in front of him within three days. She knew he wouldn't have written that she'd been ogling his rear, but he would have been perfectly within his rights to say that she had been distracted. "That…that would be good," she whispered. "Thank you." She was waiting for the tears in her eyes to go away when he spoke again.
"I'll cover your ass once, Evie," John admonished and she looked up. "Don't screw up again."
She nodded quickly and collected her thoughts for a minute more. Then she mumbled, "Sometimes I really wish you weren't you."
He looked confused. "Not me? What do--"
"Because now I want to kiss you," Evie replied quietly, "but I really don't think that SF is buying Michael's story about a five-point mallard."
John chuckled. "I suppose I can take an IOU on the kissing part," he said, his voice quiet.
"The kissing part?" Evie repeated.
"You know, 'kiss and make up,'" John explained. "I assume we've sufficiently made up?"
"I think so."
"Then I'll take a raincheck on the kissing and steal Michael's controller and kick your ass at this game instead," he teased, reaching for the device.
"You're on," Evie grinned.
When Michael heard the engines revving again, he looked up and watched with interest for a moment, then called, "Evie, look out for the tur--"
"Hey!"
"Never mind."
XXXXXX
It was nearly a week before Rodney would speak to Evie, and when he realized that she still felt terribly guilty and cringed every time she saw his scar, he decided that he was going to milk the situation for all it was worth.
It was nearly three weeks after the accident that Carson finally cleared Rodney for off-world duty. Eating breakfast with John, Ronon, and Evie an hour before Sheppard's team was to depart, Rodney noticed that he had drained his coffee cup. Holding it out to Evie, he asked, "Mind refilling this for me?"
Evie looked up from her waffle. "Get up off your lazy butt and get it yourself, McKay," she refused.
Rodney feigned a pained expression and gently rubbed the still-healing scar on his neck.
Evie felt her cheeks flush, then she snatched the cup out of his hand and quickly left the table.
"That's not right," John commented as he watched Evie go.
"But it's really nice," McKay grinned. "Yesterday, she made me a sandwich because the cooks were done for the night."
John frowned slightly. "Don't push her too far, Rodney," he warned.
"Why?"
"Because if she comes complaining to me and tells me to do something about it, I'll have to shoot you," John answered, his expression indicating that he wasn't kidding.
"I… It's only coffee; she'll be fine," Rodney said, pouting a little.
"If I was her, I'd dump it on your head," Ronon spoke up, only half-teasing.
Rodney gave the Satedan a stern look.
Ronon just shrugged.
XXXXXX
"…though our science has made significant advances, I'm afraid our medicine is several decades behind it, having remained almost unchanged for the last thirty years," Magistrate Ndena explained as she and Sheppard's team rematerialized in the Zelmoan hospital. Two seconds ago they had been in her office. Rodney was practically salivating at the thought of acquiring that sort of teleportation technology.
"While illness is quite uncommon on our planet, when it does strike, it is usually fatal," she said sadly.
"And half the time, we don't even know what we're dealing with," inserted a doctor who had approached Ndena. "Forgive me for interrupting," he said with a courteous nod to the Atlanteans, "but you should not be here. We don't know if the stranger who came through the ring a few hours ago is infectious or not."
Ndena nodded. "Have you been able to help him?" she asked, forgetting her guests for a moment.
"I've given him several drugs to try to lessen the pain, but I don't think they are working," the doctor answered. "And I haven't been able to stop his shaking either."
"Maybe we can help," John offered, knowing that if nothing else they could at least offer the suffering patient some morphine. "What are his symptoms?"
"He came through the ring about three hours ago," the doctor informed them. "He was weak and exhausted; he collapsed shortly after reaching the city. Since then he's had an elevated temperature, a cold sweat, and he hasn't stopped shaking since we got him into a bed. He's not coherent, but it's obvious he's in great pain."
Even though he knew he should probably dial home and request that Carson join them first, John pulled off his pack and said, "We've got some painkillers that might work." He retrieved the morphine from his gear and handed it to the doctor. Wanting to make sure that the young man administered it correctly, John followed him past the rows of beds to the curtained off station in the corner.
The doctor pulled the curtain aside to reveal the trembling patient. A layer of sweat covered his dark skin and his fuzzy black hair was drenched. If it wasn't for his damaged eye, John probably wouldn't have recognized him.
He swallowed hard. "Ford."